1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for access control and usage-right management of digital contents which should be differentially used in accordance with right information including a usage time, space, a user, etc., and more particularly, to a technology of improving compatibility of digital contents by issuing a usage right without limiting use of the digital contents and constructing a digital right management system for all or parts of the contents.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of wired/wireless communication means and the development of mobile communication means, digital contents businesses are also rapidly being developed. According to the developments, digital contents are also being used in various forms. Currently, research on a technology of facilitating management of the digital contents by allowing use of the digital contents at a predetermined time band, a technology of facilitating protection of copyright of the digital contents, etc. by allowing specific users to use the digital contents, a technology of facilitating protection of the digital contents by allowing use of the digital contents only in a predetermined space or domain, etc. are being conducted. That is, the technologies refer to the so-called digital right management (DRM) technology.
The research of the DRM technology is continuously progressing day by day. In particular, a space or time DRM technology is presently being researched. However, the existing DRM technology has a characteristic in that it is made through a method of limiting use of digital contents such as specific software, specific website, or a specific multimedia object, etc. in accordance with temporal and spatial information acquired from the outside.
However, the DRM technologies in the related art have the following problems. For example, numerous users should be examined in order to limit use of the contents and a problem in compatibility is indicated in order to apply the contents to DRM technologies managed in a plurality of other locations or times. Further, since only the DRM technology for the contents themselves is provided, a DRM technology for partial data of the contents for applying the DRM technology to a part of a map including information on military secrets, etc. in, for example, a DRM technology for the map is not provided. Therefore, the range of contents to which the DRM technology will be applied is limited, such as map contents, security contents, text contents, etc. which require application of the DRM technology to some components of the digital contents.